Yoshio Taniguchi, Japanese form Taniguchi Yoshio (born October 17, 1937, Tokyo, Japan) Japanese architect best known as the designer of the early 21st-century expansion of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

Architect Yoshio Taniguchi discussing his design of New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, from the …

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He was the son of Taniguchi Yoshiro, a noted figure in the modern architectural movement in Japan. Taniguchi Yoshio earned an undergraduate degree (1960) in mechanical engineering from Keiō University, Tokyo, and a master’s degree (1964) in architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He did design work for the architectural studio of Tange Kenzō from 1964 to 1972. Taniguchi then taught architecture at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and at the University of California, Los Angeles, before establishing his own practice in Tokyo in 1975.

Heeding his father’s advice to handle each of his assignments with care and not take on too many projects at one time, Taniguchi built up a successful practice, specializing in museums and other public buildings in Japan. He won numerous awards, including the 1987 Japan Academy of Art Prize for the Ken Domon Museum of Photography in Sakata and the 1990 Mainichi Art Award for the Tokyo Sea Life Park, a popular aquarium. In 1995 he designed the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, and in 1999 his Gallery of Horyuji Treasures opened at the Tokyo National Museum.

In 1997 MoMA selected Taniguchi’s design for the museum’s planned expansion. Because of his belief that architecture should be an outgrowth of dialogue between architect and client, Taniguchi had never entered a competition before submitting his proposal to MoMA, and he was somewhat surprised to succeed over his more prominent competitors. His plan called for a dramatic reconfiguration of the museum that would include expanding the exhibition space, adding large skylights to galleries, relocating the main entrance, and creating an extensive education-and-research complex. Construction commenced in 2001, and the project was completed in 2004.

The MoMA commission—Taniguchi’s first outside Japan—thrust him into the international spotlight. He continued to pursue projects both inside and outside Japan, and in 2005 he received the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for his contributions to architecture as a whole. His Asia House for the Asia Society Texas Center (Houston) was completed in 2012.

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